Epistar, Delta to Jointly Set Up Epi Wafer Factory in Mainland China

Taipei, March 25, 2011 (CENS)--Epistar Corp. board of directors recently approved a proposal to invest US$75 million to set up an epitaxy wafer factory in Guangzhou of mainland China in cooperation with Delta Electronics Inc.

The joint venture calls for total investment of US$210 million, with Epistar set to pay 70% and Delta to pay the remainder.

Epistar is currently Taiwan's No.1 LED chipmaker while Delta has branched out into LED packaging and lighting manufacturing from power-supply making. Industry executives estimated the joint venture will give a boost to both companies' goal of becoming heavyweight LED lighting suppliers in the mainland.

The joint venture is the two companies' another collaboration deal after their cooperation on high-voltage LED technology.

The Epistar board also approved the company's after-tax net income for 2010 at NT$5.76 billion (US$192 million at US$1:NT$30), or NT$7.16 per share, spiking a record 2.3 fold year on year. The company's chairman, B.J. Lee recently said that contracts have inundated the company's production capacities through April.